Breaking news: AXA to acquire 77% stake in Mansard Insurance for N43.14bn

Chuks Udo Okonta

 AXA, a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management announced today, it has entered into an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Assur Africa Holdings (“AAH”) which holds a 77 per cent stake in the composite insurance company Mansard Insurance plc (“Mansard”). Under the terms of the agreement, the total cash consideration payable at closing would amount to Euro 198 million (N43.14 billion).

AXA said in a statement, that it would include the acquired operations within its Mediterranean and Latin American Region.

This transaction would allow AXA to enter the highly attractive Nigerian market through a very reputable local company, led by a talented management team. Moreover, Mansard would be able to capitalize on AXA’s extended distribution knowledge, unique product skills and actuarial know-how, to accelerate further its development and leverage its competitive advantages. The closing of the transaction is expected before the end of 2014.

“This acquisition is a unique opportunity for AXA to enter the largest African economy with leading positions in all business lines and to get exposure to the fast-growing Nigerian retail insurance market. AXA will benefit locally from the knowledge of an experienced and successful management team and from a profitable platform. Thus, this transaction represents a further step in our acceleration strategy, which is at the heart of our Ambition AXA plan, and is in line with our belief that insurance is instrumental to foster economic development, by providing communities with protection and risk management expertise”, said Denis Duverne, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AXA.

Mansard is the number four insurance provider in Nigeria with operations in both Property & Casualty (#4 with five per cent market share) and Life & Savings (#5 with four per cent market share). The company is well established in commercial lines, which represents nearly two thirds of its revenues, and has been developing successfully its retail business, achieving a growth of ca. 40 per cent per annum on average over the past three years. Mansard has built a strong competitive advantage through its multi-channel approach, with a strong focus on proprietary networks.

Managing Director Mansard Group, Tosin Runsewe said: “We are delighted to join the AXA Group, a global leader in Life & Savings, Property & Casualty and Asset Management. It is indeed a befitting home for the Mansard Group given our leading position in the same business lines within Nigeria and our unflinching drive to consistently create exceptional value for all our stakeholders. Leveraging on our complementary strengths as well as common values and long-term vision, we can now deliver even higher levels of product innovation, underwriting capacity and operational excellence to our corporate and retail clients. We view with much excitement the opportunity to bring our strong entrepreneurial orientation to bear in delivering on AXA’s sub-Saharan African expansionary ambitions.”

ABOUT MANSARD

Mansard is a composite insurer founded in 1989. It is the #4 player in the Nigerian market, with strong positions in both Property & Casualty (#4 with five per cent market share) and Life (#5 with four per cent market share). Commercial lines business represented 68 per cent of GWP in 2013, while the retail business, which experienced a GWP growth of ca. 40 per cent per annum on average from 2010 to 2013, was at 32 per cent.

Mansard’s distribution strategy relies on brokers and salaried sales-force for commercial lines and on bancassurance partnerships and agents for retail lines. The agency channel is the fastest growing distribution network.

Mansard has 240 employees and is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. It is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

In 2013, Mansard recorded GWP of NGN 13.6 billion (or Euro 64.3 million). From 2010 to 2013, Mansard achieved a GWP growth of 22% per annum on average. 2013 Net income was NGN 2.1 billion (or Euro 9.9 million), a 31 per cent increase over 2012.

ABOUT AXA IN AFRICA

AXA´s presence in Africa consists of operations in Cameroon (#4 in P&C with 10 per cent market share and revenues of Euro 19 million), Gabon (#5 in P&C with 14 per cent market share and revenues of Euro 23 million), Ivory Coast (#5 in P&C with seven per cent market share and revenues of Euro 16 million), Morocco (#3 in P&C with 16 per cent market share and revenues of Euro 250 million; #5 in Life with 10 per cent market share and revenues of Euro 71 million), Senegal (#1 in P&C with 17 per cent market share and revenues of Euro 18 million), as well as greenfield operations in Algeria (ca. one per cent market share In P&C with revenues of Euro 11 million and nine per cent market share in Life with revenues of Euro 7 million).

 

ABOUT THE AXA GROUP

The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 157,000 employees serving 102 million clients in 56 countries. In 2013, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91.2 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 4.7 billion. AXA had Euro 1,113 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2013.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA’s American Depository Share is also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.